The Health Secretary has agreed to meet with the NHS staff waiting to find out if they will be working in a new hospital by 2028.
Neil Gray will visit Belford Hospital in Fort William this Summer after a meeting with campaigners was arranged by Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes.
Plans for a new hospital were at an advanced stage when the Scottish Government announced in February that it was pausing funding for new-build hospital infrastructure projects citing Westminster cuts for the decision.
The hospital's former head surgeon, David Sedgwick, says he was told when he was appointed in 1992 that it would be rebuilt within 10 years.
It is the busiest of the six rural general hospitals in the Highlands and Islands and is the only one that has not been renewed in the past 40 years.
Highland Council bought land at Blar Mhor in Fort William for £2m from Tesco in 2015, after the retailer abandoned plans to build a store.
Balfour Beatty has been appointed to construct the new £180million hospital and the health board was preparing to unveil designs when the funding pause was announced.
Members of the Belford Action team - David Sedgwick, Michael Foxley, John Hutchison, Patricia Jordan and John Gillespie - met with the health secretary and Ms Forbes, who is also their constituency MSP, earlier this week.
The group said: "We explained the need to continue the planning and design work for our new hospital, and that any further delay would only result in increasing the costs.
"The team had a very worthwhile meeting with Balfour Beatty and NHS Highland the previous week when it was learned that £3.5 million pounds over the next two years will take this much-needed project through to a Full Business case, and ready for construction."
The Scottish Government is currently reviewing its capital programme to establish which projects will be funded.
"Our team is determined that the new Belford will be in that programme, and urge the community to lobby for that outcome," said the campaign group.
"We must put the maximum pressure on the Board and executive of NHS Highland.
"As a separate but related issue in managing the Belford now, we discussed and agreed the need to start treating the significant problem of bed blocking/delayed discharge [which affects] 40-80% of beds.
"The cost of a person occupying an acute hospital bed is at least twice the cost of being a resident in a nursing or care home."
READ MORE:
Long-awaited plan to rebuild crumbling Highland hospital finally gets off the ground
'Come and see what we are dealing it' - Doctor's plea to Michael Matheson
A protest to demand funding for the rebuild saw around 700 people take to the streets in March.
Kate Forbes MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, said: “I know how important a new Belford hospital is for Fort William, and that’s why I secured this meeting between my constituents and the Cabinet Secretary for Health at the Scottish Parliament.
“It was a helpful discussion and I’m delighted that Neil Gray has agreed to visit.”
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